1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a channelization method for multichannel Medium Access Control (MAC). More particularly, the present invention relates to a non-agile channelization method for multichannel MAC.
2. Description of the Related Art
The latest Common Channel Framework (CCF) introduced in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11s standard is designed to support an agile or dynamic multichannel operation. However, a non-agile multichannel operation is also very useful when channel switching is performed for a fixed time. In many cases, however, the non-agile switching has difficulty in defining a boundary of the channel switching, although it is expected that the non-agile switching will provide a heterogeneous hardware capability in unmanaged networks. In addition, even though a cluster based multichannel operation is beneficial, channel switching of a mesh point (MP) group is not supported in the agile channel switching. Accordingly, there is a demand for supporting non-agile channelization in the CCF.
That is, in the multichannel MAC, there is a need to enable non-agile channel switching, and determine how to make the network connected. In addition, there is a need to determine how to make agile and non-agile channel switching coexist, and how to avoid a change in hardware.